Morristown, Tennessee

Besides being the town that raised pioneer and story teller Davy Crockett, Morristown is known for its nearly 50-year-old Skymart, an elevated sidewalk complete with street crossings. In 1962, as the downtown commercial district was struggling to compete with a new suburban shopping mall, Turkey Creek flooded and nearly wiped out downtown.

In response, building owners invested $2 million to build the “overhead sidewalk” and turn the second floor of the existing buildings into a new street. Well, it didn’t work as planned, but the sidewalks remain and today are getting a new life as a social and commercial hub.

Meanwhile, Crockett’s boyhood home in Morristown is now a museum that was entered on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. Killed at the Alamo in 1836, Crockett garnered new-found fame in the 1950s when Disney ran a five-part series on his exploits, which resulted in the licensing and sale of $300 million of coonskin caps and the like. That would be more than $2 billion today.